242 THE HAUGHTYSHIRE HUNT. 



" Turnover against Binkie." Whereat much shuffling of 

 feet, muttering and mumbling, in the midst of which the 

 learned Judge looked up angrily and cried — 



"Silence, please ! " 



Whereupon the Registrar rose from his seat, glared all 

 round the Court, and repeated — 



" Silence, please ! " 



And the usher, awakened to a sense of the awful respon- 

 sibility incurred by any who should dare to speak in the 

 august presence of Mr. Justice Smotherum, bawled out at the 

 top of his voice — 



" Si-lence, please ! " 



And then the Junior Counsel for the plaintiff, Mr. Clifford 

 Sinn, hastily swallowing a cough-drop, rose on his hind legs 

 and stumbled through some legal jargon, yclept ' pleadings,' 

 after which the real business of the day began, as Mr. Silky's 

 honeyed accents invited the attention of the twelve ' good men 

 and true,' whilst he narrated the details and particulars of 

 one of the most heartless cases of a young man's frailty, and a 

 young man's desertion, which it had yet been his lot to hear of. 



"Oh, but that's rather beastly, you know, isn't it'?" 

 squeaked Mr. Binkie to his solicitor. Poor Travers had 

 certainly never viewed his own conduct in any such light as 

 this before, and was disagreeably surprised at hearing himself 

 thus denounced. Mr. Clutchcosts turned to his client, and 

 in soothing tones said — 



"It's only Silky's way. He says the same thing in every 

 ' breach ' case he has. The judges all know him, and it's a 

 fresh jury every time, you see, so they don't have the chance 

 of getting sick of the statement." 



